Infection Control

Mary Mallon known as Typhoid Mary, worked as a cook for 7 years in the New York City area. Mallon was born1869 in Ireland, immigrated to the United States in 1884. She started working as a cook in 1900 in Mamaroneck, NY after two weeks of employment the family had typhoid fever. In1901 moved to Manhattan to work for a different family and members of the family developed fever and diarrhea. In 1906 took a position in Oyster Bay, Long Island where in two weeks six of the eleven members were hospitalizes with typhoid fever, the family hired an investigator George Soper who found "that the family change cooks on August three weeks before the typhoid epidemic broke out". Soper a civil engineer with experience in typhoid fever outbreaks conclude the Mallon was the cause and began to research her employment history. Soper found Mallon explained she could be the cause why all these family had typhoid fever. Therefore, he need it samples of her urine, blood, and stools to confirm it but she did not understand how she could be the cause since she never had the fever.

Soper didn't have any success for that reason he gave the case to the health department who visited the house with police officers and an ambulance and took her into custody. During her custody, the doctors determine she is a carrier and advised her to have an operation to be cure they would remove her gallbladder or but Mallon refused "no knife it would be put on me" since she thought they wanted to kill her because she didn't carry the typhoid fever. Mary was send to Brother Island where she was incarcerate, received medication to cure her. Mallon could be free if she agreed to get a different job to prevent the transmitting of the disease. In 1910, Mary was release and needs to report regularly and given a job as a laundress, but paid almost nothing. In 1914, the Health department lost track of Mallon. The health department trained all food handlers and tested to avoid typhoid. In March 1915, a respectfully maternity hospital get an outbreak were many people has typhoid fever. Dr. Soper was called the staff mention typhoid Mary better known as Mrs. Brown who worked in the kitchen hospital spreading the disease "to mothers, babies, doctors, and nurses like a destroying angel". They Trace her and brake into her house where she got into custody and sending her back into the Brother Island without a hesitation for quarantine and made friends with others including the doctors. After 3 years, Mary was able to leave the island to visit friends, since she always returned on time. Mallon got a job as a lab technician at River Side Hospital. Mary Mallon dies in 1938, never accepted the she was a healthy carrier of typhoid fever.

Infection control is critical in the community health subject. A control can be as simple as hand washing to prevent any infections as well as vaccination and disinfection. Mary Mallon is the perfect example of how an